What Comes First, The Funds or The Dream?
16 Jul 2024 · 19 min
Lori and Chris Harder argue you need the dream first, then chase the funding. Lori raised money starting in 2020 and launched her skincare product Glossy in March 2024 after multiple pivots. They share how to find your money, stay obsessed, and build the skills or hire the people who can help you get there.
Chapters
I didn't currently have all the network in the world. I didn't know how to raise money or get more money than we already had. And I didn't feel like I had all the time in the world. But I knew that I could create time. I knew that there was a land where I could learn how to raise money. And I also knew that I understood how to start building network and that it took a lot of time. What this allowed me to do was really dream in the land of Wait, Nothing is off limits. And we're back with another episode of He Said, she Said.
All right, babe. You know we kick these off the Glosy tip. Let me say Glossy has been saving my ass. Every morning that I wake up here, going out on the boat, like, wanting to feel lean up here at the lake house. I drink it every night. Okay, let's be honest. Sometimes two of them every single night before I go to bed. So I actually feel lean when I wake up. But what's your Glossy tip this week?
I just have to say he has always cracked me up with his, like, usage of supplements and things that he ends up following.
If one is good, two is better.
Oh, my God. Like, years ago, he found this product that he loved, and I was like, you're. He was taking, like, five times the amount you should be taking. Like, please don't do this.
What are you doing?
Anyway, so Glossy has hyaluronic acid in it. It was one of what we call our hero ingredients. So I would say our two of our main hero ingredients are obviously our clinically studied probiotic that we're obsessed with. That's where we were like, man, we just. We gotta put the money down on this because we want an insane probiotic and we want a great hyaluronic acid, because the results that we were hearing from these two products were insane. So I'm gonna talk about hyaluronic acid today because a lot of people think about hyaluronic acid as something that you apply to your face. They just. They use it topically.
It's always been topical.
Yeah, it's always been talked about topically. It's a great product. But hyaluronic acid is actually something that your body produces naturally. So scientists found that hyaluronic acid is found all throughout the body, especially in your eyes, your joints, and your skin. So when people think of hyaluronic acid, they think of topical. But actually, ingesting hyaluronic acid is going to get you some really great results. So here's A few benefits of hyaluronic acid. It helps things move smoothly, so it helps your joints work like a well oiled machine. It helps prevent injury from bones grinding against each other. It keeps things super hydrated because it's known for retaining water. So when you think of that, it retains a little bit of water underneath your skin. So when people take hyaluronic acid, they just kind of notice like, oh, my, my wrinkles are more filled out, they're a lot more smooth. I look more hydrated. My skin doesn't look as like dry, cracky. It's really, really great for fine lines. And so that's why topically is great. But ingesting it, when you think about our skin, like our skin is coming from the inside out. So if you're doing topical things, yes, you might be like helping something momentarily. But if you really want something that's actually changing your skin, you are going to want to look at what you're eating, look at what you're consuming. Taking hyaluronic acid, make sure you're taking vitamin C, which is in glossy as well. So a lot of people don't know that fact about hyaluronic acid.
I love it. Well, if you guys want gloce, for our podcast listeners only, Lori stepped up. She gives you 25% off your first order. Literally 25% off your first order. But you have to use the coupon code happy, your first subscription. Yep. So go to getglocee.com, use coupon code happy for 25% off. Glocee is spelled G L O c. I get glocee.com, coupon code happy for 25% off. Now you're building your dream. You're building your dream company. I know it took a lot of years to get there, but it's finally working. And what we're going to talk about today, what comes first, the funds or the dream is applicable to your dream company, your dream life, your dream trip, your dream anything. And I'm just going to set the table with maybe a controversial sentence that will immediately be a wake up call for some or confirmation for others. And it is this. And you and I have lived this, so this is how I know it. And our highest performing friends have lived this, so this is how I know it. The difference between a mediocre life or a mediocre business or an extraordinary dream life or an extraordinary dream business is that first you do the dreaming, then you find the funds for it. But people who are stuck in mediocrity they say things like, well, must be nice to be able to dream. You've got the ability, you've got the funds to do that. And they've got it backwards. They think that the funds come first, and then you're allowed to have the dreams and start wondering what's possible after. No, absolutely not. That's the wrong order. You start doing this, this will change your life. What comes first, the funds or the dream? The dream. Every single time. And if you haven't built this muscle, and if you haven't built this habit, then you're never going to find the funds. There's never going to be a day where like, okay, hey, I got some funds, I got some extra money. We should start dreaming. It does not work that way. It's always the other way around.
I think that people think of this as, like, making. I guess they think of dreams as making goals. Like, you. And I think of dreams as, like, those are our goals that we want to strive for. And I can think back to when I had a very different mindset before you and I got into personal development. I would create my goal or slash said dream from my current skill set and my current bank account.
Yes.
So your current reality wasn't actually even a dream. It was just kind of like, what kind of vacation are we even able to do right now? Like, what kind of business, if I wanted to do it, could I do with my skill set and my bank account, which go hand in hand. Right. It's kind of like I would think of things in terms of, like, this other job that I wanted to do, essentially, and I'd be like, well, I only know how to do this, or I didn't graduate from high school, or I know that our bank account is here right now, so I wouldn't ever be striving to reach anything. And that's why you and I are so passionate about setting that. Setting that bar way, way higher than you want. Like, setting it so high that you actually have to become a different person and learn a new skill set that helps you change the bank account so that you're growing.
This is going to sound crazy, but if you are too in touch with your current reality, it's going to doom you forever. When it comes to building a dream life or a dream business. I'll give you example. If your current reality is that, you know, you don't have a lot of extra expendable income, you don't have a lot of extra money in the bank, but you have a business that would take 100 grand to start. What's probably going to happen, you're going to say, oh, if I had 100 grand, I could start that shop, I could start that store, I could start that whatever. But I don't have that. I've never had that. So I guess it's not for me. That's the wrong approach. What happens is you need to become obsessed with having your dream shop, your dream store, your dream business, your dream whatever. Figuring out it's going to take me a hundred grand and then becoming completely unattached to your current reality, saying, okay, my reality might say I can't do this, but the possibility of me going and finding the funds say that I can. So you have to become obsessed with, I'm going to do this dream come hell or high water. And then the very next step is, where do I get the funds for it? You know, Grant Cardone always runs around. Like him or not, he always runs around. He says something that I think is brilliant. He says, who's got my money? Who's got my money? I wake up every day and I say, who's got my money? And it's true. This applies to everything in your life. Got a dream business that you don't know where to get the money from. Somebody out there has it, they'll invest, they'll lend it, or you can do pre sales to start your business. Have a dream life that you want. There's customers out there that have your money. You got to find them and sell to them. So you have to have the dream first. And then you got to run around saying, who's got my money?
Yeah, you know, with Gloucey, I dreamed a big dream and I asked myself these three questions. I remember that I had hit a place in my life and career where I had never dreamed bigger than what I had done currently, which was like, I had started women's events. We did amazing in network marketing. I wrote a book. And I realized at that point I'm like, I've never, I've never dreamt past this, like writing a book. Are you kidding? From a person who didn't graduate high school. Like, I hit the max of my dreams. And so for me, I didn't want to just do the same thing again because I always wanted to be growing, I always wanted to be challenging myself. And also I was feeling a little bit maxed out with what I was able to make through the modalities that we were using, launching courses, events, stuff like that. So with Glosi or before, when I Was thinking about, like, okay, how can I even dream a bigger dream? I asked myself the questions. If I had all the time, all the money in all of the network in the world, what would I be doing? Now, those three questions are very important to ask, and I don't want you to be put off by like, okay, well, that's not reality for me because it wasn't reality for me either. I didn't currently have all the network in the world. I didn't know how to raise money or get more money than we already had. And I didn't feel like I had all the time in the world. But I knew that I could create time. I knew that there was a land where I could learn how to raise money. And I also knew that I understood how to start building network and that it took a lot of time. And so what this allowed me to do was really dream in the land of wait. Nothing is off limits. Otherwise. If I didn't believe those three things that I could do. Learn a new skill set, meet new people, learn how to raise money, guess what my dream would have been? It would have been in the realm of what I currently knew it would be another dream that was exactly the same as the ones that I had done. It would be writing another book, doing another event event, maybe making it bigger, maybe just trying to make book sales bigger, which is also awesome. But I wanted something different. I wanted something where I could. Like, I was listening to all these founder interviews at the time, and they were selling companies for 100 million, 300 million, 500 million. And I was like, how do I do that? What do I need to ask myself in order to do that? And so these three questions came up. And to dream a bigger dream, I had to learn the skill set of raising money. Now, again, I'm going to say it again. Did not graduate high school. Chris, you know that I had the story of, I'm terrible with numbers. I'm bad with numbers. I don't know how to do this. And so it took me into a better question. And the question became, who do I know that has raised money before that I can ask these questions? We had a friend, Bill Glaser, who had raised a lot of money. I sat with him. The most important thing I can tell you is to say I had to get really vulnerable with him. I was like, bill, here's my situation. I have a money story or I have a number story. I don't think I'm smart with numbers. I haven't graduated high school. I feel like I'm never going to be able to do this. And he's like, well, you totally can, because you don't. Someone else can take that over for you. You can hire an attorney and if you're a good storyteller and you'll learn, like, he's like, you'll learn all the info about raising money and how to start a company. Like, someone will just guide you the entire time. You'll pay for it out of some of the money you raise. I can help you with your first phone calls. Here's what you're gonna do. Here's what you do for your financials and a deck and all of the things. Somebody held my hand through all of that. And guess what I learned eventually? I was like in conversations with Chris going, oh, my God, I just explained to you everything. Like, I actually learned it. And so did the funds come first in that case, or did the dream.
Come first dream and it caused you to have to go find the funds and the know how and the time?
Yep. It made me figure it out because I talked about the dream every single day and I told people about the dream. I'm like, this is what I want. This is what I believe, and this is. This is what I'm focused on doing.
This doesn't just apply to your dream business. I want to be clear. This is very handy for living your dream life. Like Lori and I, still multiple times a week. When we go on our walks, we'll literally play a game we call Exit. So when we sell one of our two companies, we'll be like, okay, what if we sell our company for this much and after taxes, we have this much left over? What's the first thing we're going to do? What's the second thing we're going to do? Okay, where are we going to buy this particular home? Okay, what are we going to get for each set of parents? Okay, what are we going to. And we literally play this game for the majority of our walk or half of our walk.
So fun.
And then that forces us to go find the path to the life that we dream about out loud. And we've always done this, even back before we had a bunch of money. If we wanted to go on a dream trip, if we wanted to live in a dream particular home, we would always say we'd go drive through the neighborhoods. We would go, right. We would put ourselves in position to make it tangible, to be the dreamer. And then we'd say, okay, what if we started this? What if we did this? What if we Ask for that. We have always gotten in touch with the dream and then worked backwards to say how many funds would we need and where could we get them? And that's how it works. I'm going to go back to what I said in the beginning of this thing. Too many of you say things like, well, must be nice, you know these people, well, it must be nice. You've got the money. Well, it must be nice. You've got this, whatever this might be. Except that's the wrong damn statement. Those things don't come first. And then you're allowed to suddenly go dream. You have to have the dream. And then you work backwards and say where could I get these things? Because I promise they're out there.
And people grossly underestimate the amount of time it takes. And you know, in these dreams of course we're going to put, it's very important to put like a timeline on them and you know, for raising money for glossy, I started in 2020 with a different idea. Some, a lot of you know that it started as light pink which was a non elk rose and a rose wine spritzer. And in 20 when I started raising money, you know that business was, it took about two years through the pandemic to raise money and start to get it to the finish line. As you guys know, I couldn't get it to the finish line so it had to pivot for multiple, multiple reasons. But I didn't have a launched product until March of 2024.
Wow.
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39 months.
Yes. And so I know, you know, for me, I was freaking out at that number. Like, why is this taking so long? I can't believe this. There's got to be something wrong. There's something wrong with me. Maybe I'm not the person who can complete this. I had all of those thoughts too, but what happened is I started asking questions to other founders. Hey, what did your delays look like? Like I listen to all these podcasts, like, you know what did the. What did launch actually look like? And they're like, oh, my God, I ran out of money before launch even hit. Like, I had to raise another $2 million because I had burned through 2 million just going through R. And I'm like, oh, my God, I am so glad that I keep asking questions, because you know what? There were multiple times where I was like, I'm not the woman for this. I'm not cut out for it. Maybe I should just quit. Maybe we should just figure out how to, like, give whatever money is back to this.
You said it to me many times. You're like, chris, let's just go give the $2 million back from our money to the investors.
Yeah. And it's like, you cannot quit on that dream. Because when you quit on that dream, it shows. It says to people, oh, look, she tried, and she couldn't do it either. And I'm like, that is not going to be my story. That is not going to be my legacy. And that certainly is not going to be what I personally live with for the rest of my life. Because if I quit this, even if I start something else that I think is going to be easier, it's going to be the same damn thing. So I was like, all right, let's pivot. Let's keep breathing life into this dream. Let's keep going, because you know how long it takes. And so, again, people grossly underestimate the time it takes. But the people who will stick to it keep learning the skill set. Keep going, keep finding a way. The path to a dream is to keep finding way, even at dead ends. Find the next way, Figure it out.
Well. And you find that by being around the right people and the right inspiration and the right setting, right, you have to put yourself in the circumstances to get in touch with that dream, get out of touch with your reality, get in touch with that dream, and then go find all this, like, this European trip coming up, that where we're bringing everybody to Italy on literally a Dreamtrip. 80% experiential, 20% intentional masterminding. This is an example of that. I'm so excited for everybody going because. Well, now I already know the people going. I know there's so many people in there. Like, some of them are our investors or companies. There's so many people in there that have the answers to your next dream. Oh, why didn't you tell me? Here's how you do this. Oh, why didn't you tell me? Here's that. And then the experiences we're giving Them. Like, really? Dinner, Private dinner with the Ferragamo family. Multi, multi, multi billionaires of one of the biggest fashion brands in the world over hundreds of years. And then private helicopters into this legendary winery in Tuscany. And that entrepreneur who started all that and all the other companies in Italy, you're going to talk about his journey. And as you walk around his vineyard and fly in his helicopters, like, what? So it's these experiences that make you say, okay, I can see, feel, and touch the dream. And, oh, the guy to my left, you're an investor. Oh, the gal to my right, you've already built this company. Oh, the person in front of me, you've already done this. And you leave these experiences not only in touch with your dream, but you leave with so many of the missing pieces. Right? So I'm so excited for everybody going. There's one room left, by the way. 1. The trip is in October. If you guys want to go DM Lori or I about it, we'll happily talk to you about it. Or just go right to Chrisharder Me Italy and grab that spot. There's literally one room left. Go to Chrisharder Me Italy and grab that spot. Or DM one of us.
All right, we're so grateful for you guys, and I hope that this inspires you to dream a bigger dream. Start fueling it. Like, let it be completely unhinged. Like, that's what we try to do on our walks, is be like, take the cap off. What do the kids say? No cap. Or is that already old?
I have no idea. But may your dreams be unhinged. All right, guys, thanks for listening. Love and appreciate you.
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